The distinct personal laws that govern the principal religious groups are a major aspect of Indian multiculturalism and secularism, and support specific gendered rights in family life. Nation and ...
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The distinct personal laws that govern the principal religious groups are a major aspect of Indian multiculturalism and secularism, and support specific gendered rights in family life. Nation and Family is the most comprehensive study of the public discourses, processes of social mobilization, legislation, and case law that formed India's three major personal-law systems, which govern the Hindus, the Muslims, and the Christians. It is the first to systematically compare Indian experiences to those in various other countries that inherited personal laws specific to religious group, sect, or ethnic group. Subramanian shows why India's postcolonial policy makers changed the personal laws they inherited less than the rulers of Turkey and Tunisia but far more than those of Algeria, Syria, and Lebanon, and increased women's rights, contrary to the trend in Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, and Nigeria since the 1970s. He demonstrates that discourses about the nation, its cultural groups, and its traditions interact with features of state-society relations and influence the pattern of multiculturalism, the place of religion in public life, and the forms of family regulation. The study shows that the greater engagement of political elites with initiatives among Hindus and the predominant place they gave Hindu motifs in nationalist discourses shaped Indian multiculturalism, secularism, and family law, contrary to current understandings. In exploring the significant role of communitarian discourses in shaping state-society relations, public policy, and legal institutions, it takes “state in society” approaches to comparative politics and political sociology in new directions.Less

Nation and Family : Personal Law, Cultural Pluralism, and Gendered Citizenship in India

Narendra Subramanian

Published in print: 2014-04-09

The distinct personal laws that govern the principal religious groups are a major aspect of Indian multiculturalism and secularism, and support specific gendered rights in family life. Nation and Family is the most comprehensive study of the public discourses, processes of social mobilization, legislation, and case law that formed India's three major personal-law systems, which govern the Hindus, the Muslims, and the Christians. It is the first to systematically compare Indian experiences to those in various other countries that inherited personal laws specific to religious group, sect, or ethnic group. Subramanian shows why India's postcolonial policy makers changed the personal laws they inherited less than the rulers of Turkey and Tunisia but far more than those of Algeria, Syria, and Lebanon, and increased women's rights, contrary to the trend in Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, and Nigeria since the 1970s. He demonstrates that discourses about the nation, its cultural groups, and its traditions interact with features of state-society relations and influence the pattern of multiculturalism, the place of religion in public life, and the forms of family regulation. The study shows that the greater engagement of political elites with initiatives among Hindus and the predominant place they gave Hindu motifs in nationalist discourses shaped Indian multiculturalism, secularism, and family law, contrary to current understandings. In exploring the significant role of communitarian discourses in shaping state-society relations, public policy, and legal institutions, it takes “state in society” approaches to comparative politics and political sociology in new directions.

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